Happiness

Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.
- Aldous Huxley

This was my quote of the day today on my google page. It's interesting because my SO and I were just talking about happiness the other day. He said that I seemed happier since I started doing Sparkpeople, and he hoped I kept it up.

Then I asked if he thought that happiness was a constant state of being. Some of you are probably going, 'of course you can be happy forever.' I say it's a lie. I believe happiness, complete and utter happiness can be experiences for moments, minutes and even a few days, but beyond that happiness either goes into the realm of crazy, or it's probably not really happiness.

I had a great argument with a professor about this one time when we were discussing "Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia." Basically Rasselas and his sister set out to find happiness somewhere in the world because they both know they're not happy at home. Eventually, sorry to give it away, they realize they were never more happy than when they were at home. The professor found my belief about happiness to be, as his exact words were "depressing."

I have things that make me happy. Succeeding makes me feel happy. Sometimes I have an overwhelming rush of happiness when I look at my SO and feel all the love I have for him (I know, completely cheesy). When I learn something new, I normally feel happiness. This happiness does not last. I have a feeling, a moment, and then I am back to me, back to my daily life. My life is not devoid of happiness. I am content in my life most days and in most things.

My point? I am happy about Sparkpeople. I know that this may fall to content, and I'm completely satisfied with that, but the SO was right. It has been making me happy for almost three weeks now. I hope it keeps that way, too.